Recently United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Jadenu, a new oral iron chelator formulation for chronic iron overload patients such as Thalassemia. The new film coated formulation is an improvement over the existing once daily oral iron chelator Deferasirox (available as Asunra in Bangladesh). The tablet can be taken with or without food, will simplify the treatment of chronic iron overload in thalassemia.

Thalassemia is a life-threatening anemia in children which is inherited genetically. These patients survive by taking blood transfusion at 2-4 weeks regular interval. Blood is a rich source of iron and its regular transfusion causes iron toxicity in the body.

In the past, living with Thalassemia had been as distressful as it could be due to the painful daily treatment with injection Desferal (desferrioxamine) to reduce the iron overload resulting from regular blood transfusion. Desferal must be taken subcutaneously with a portable syringe pump over 8-12 hours. Needless to say, a child suffering for Thalassemia dreaded it the most because it is a daily procedure and often produced a tender swelling on the skin.

The treatment became much less troublesome with introduction of oral iron chelators. However, the oral chelators are also associated with significant treatment burden and side effects.

The new formulation is believed to improve the compliance of the patients as it can be taken any time of the day without concern of food.

The writer is the founder and Secretary General of Bangladesh Thalassemia Foundation, 30 Chamelibagh Shantinagar, Dhaka, Ph: 02-8332481